SDSU season ticket sales

Washington State at SDSU

When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Qualcomm Stadium

On the air: The Mtn.; 4 San Diego (Cox Cable only); 600-AM

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Brady Hoke often got frustrated by the lack of people in the stands at Qualcomm Stadium.

He couldn’t understand it.

More than three million people live in San Diego County, but only 23,000 came to San Diego State football games?

“If we don’t put people in Qualcomm, our kids would rather play (on the road), because there’s more people,” SDSU’s former coach said last year.

Not surprisingly, Hoke left for a different program – Michigan – that draws 110,000 per game. In his place, new San Diego State head coach Rocky Long is taking a more patient approach with crowds: Build it and they will buy season tickets.

It’s worked so far. SDSU’s paid season-ticket sales for football have increased 27 percent since last season, up to 12,380, as of Friday. It marks the most season tickets SDSU has sold in five seasons and the biggest year-over-year increase in at least a decade. But Long said there’s still a ways to go before his team can truly gain an edge from it.

“You have to win enough that they want to come,” Long said. Small crowds for home games “only bother me because when you play at home, you don’t have a home-field advantage. That’s the only thing about it that bothers me.”

Last year, SDSU sold only 9,754 season tickets for a stadium that seats 71,500. The average crowd was 22,717, according to the turnstile count, which measures bodies passing through the stadium gates. The annual Sky Show game still draws by far the biggest crowd of the season – with many of the ticket-buyers still only purchasing tickets to watch the massive fireworks display after the game. In the last three years, the Sky Show game drew an average turnstile crowd of 32,830.

For SDSU, the goal is to make the actual game just as big of an attraction. This year’s Sky Show game will played on Saturday, when SDSU (2-0) hosts Washington State (2-0). Another big crowd is expected, and the school has encouraged fans to purchase their tickets in advance to avoid long lines.

Several recruits also are expected to attend.

"We try to get them all to show up when there’s a good crowd, and we try to explain to them that it’s always like that," said Long, whose team last year had its first winning season since 1998 (9-4).

After building the season-ticket base up from its decade low of 9,668 in 2009, the trick for SDSU is to keep fans -- and recruits -- coming back. Despite their winning ways last year, the Aztecs drew just 13,715 fans in their regular-season finale against UNLV, including 687 students.